---
title: "Multilingual Phone Service: 70 Languages on the Phone"
description: "How an AI phone assistant handles calls in 70 languages – and why multilingual availability is an underestimated advantage for many businesses."
type: "wissen"
product: "phone"
slug: "multilingual-phone-service"
source_language: "de"
target_languages: ["de", "en", "es", "pl", "tr"]
published: "2026-06-10"
status: "publish"
faq_json: [{"q":"What is a multilingual phone service?","a":"A phone service that handles calls in the caller's language. With AI, you don't need a multilingual team for this: the assistant speaks 70 languages when needed and switches during the conversation."}, {"q":"How many languages does an AI phone assistant master?","a":"With webRichtung phone, it's 70 languages. The Phone Agent can understand and answer callers in their language – from English and Turkish to Polish or Spanish."}, {"q":"Will my team understand afterward what the conversation was about?","a":"Yes: answered calls land in the call log with an AI summary – the team reads the request, regardless of which language the conversation was held in."}, {"q":"Which businesses benefit from multilingual availability?","a":"All those with international customers or a mixed-language catchment area: gastronomy and tourism, trades and rentals in metropolitan areas, practices, retailers with foreign customers."}, {"q":"Do I have to maintain the knowledge in every language?","a":"No. You store your company knowledge in the Knowledge Base – the assistant uses it as a basis and conducts the conversation in the caller's language."}]
language: "en"
source_id: "wissen/mehrsprachiger-telefonservice"
source_hash: "314bf3f0b513f5a1f19514fe05be7c13a86c325ed30ec4a73d0897a27fddf980"
---

A multilingual phone service answers calls in the caller's language – and with AI, you no longer need a multilingual team to do it. An AI phone assistant like webRichtung's Phone Agent speaks 70 languages when needed: it understands the request, answers from your stored company knowledge, and summarizes the conversation for your team at a glance.

## The language barrier is a silent brake on revenue

Anyone who has ever had to make a phone call in a foreign language knows the hurdle: calling is much harder than writing. Many customers with a different native language therefore don't even try – or the conversation breaks down after three sentences of mutual awkwardness. This affects more businesses than you might think: the restaurant with tourists, the property management company in a mixed-language neighborhood, the trades business with international construction-site customers, the practice in whose catchment area many languages are spoken. In writing, many have long made do with translation tools – but on the phone, where it counts in real time, this aid wasn't available until now.

## How this works with AI

The process barely differs from the single-language case – and that's the point:

1. The caller speaks in their language; the assistant understands and answers accordingly.
2. The answers are based on your Knowledge Base – opening hours, services, prices you maintain once, not per language.
3. Forwarding rules apply unchanged: urgent matters go to a human, everything else is recorded.
4. In the call log, your team finds an AI summary of the request – readable, even if the conversation was in Polish or Spanish.

This way, the AI solves the actual problem of multilingual availability: it rarely fails due to a lack of goodwill, but rather because no one on the team can cover all the languages of the catchment area.

## Typical use scenarios

- **Gastronomy & Tourism:** Reservations and questions from international guests – even in the evening, when the service team is busy on the floor. More on this in the article [AI phone service for the restaurant industry](/en/wissen/ki-telefonservice-gastronomie.html).
- **Property management & rentals:** Damage reports and tenant requests in the language in which they can be described precisely.
- **Retail & services:** Inquiries from international customers about products, delivery, or appointments.
- **Practices & businesses in metropolitan areas:** Appointment and organizational questions without a language barrier at reception.

## Staying honest: where humans are needed

Multilingual AI call handling does not replace expert advice in the foreign language. It ensures that the request comes through, is understood, and is documented – your team can then give the answer prepared, if necessary in writing or with support. That is a big difference from the status quo, in which such calls often simply fail.

## How to get started

With [webRichtung phone](https://www.webrichtung.de/module/phone/), multilingualism is not a surcharge feature but part of the Phone Agent: your own phone number, Knowledge Base, forwarding rules, log with summary – and 70 languages. Set up an agent, call it as a test in a foreign language, and read the summary afterward: 7 days with 15 conversation minutes are free. Beforehand, store two or three typical questions from your international customers in the Knowledge Base so that the test is realistic.